When Dragan Sakota started his career back in the 1970s, it was the time of the "Old Yugoslavia". Back then, it was all about bread and circuses in the former "Socialist Paradise". Bread was cheap, and basketball players were the gladiators of the moment. A coach didn't have to worry about fundamentals or star-like attitudes and salaries sufficed to pay the rent and to buy a car, period.

Some 20 years later, Sakota will have to deal with injuries; NBA stars shunning international competition; and a country which has just broken up again - this time in two.

This summer the coach of Red Star Belgrade will have the long-awaited task of reshuffling Serbian basketball and sacrifice immediate success for the sake of long-term renewal. Sakota has courageously taken up the challenge everyone was running away from.